From stories by the legendary team Bill Gaines & Al Feldstein come the classic horror tales written by Feldstein and illustrated by the all-star line-up of Wally Wood, Jack Kamen, Johnny Craig, Feldstein himself, Joe Orlando, Graham Ingels, Jack Davis, and Marie Severin. Reprints 24 stories from Tales from the Crypt with a foreword by Joe Dante, director of Gremlins. RFrom stories by the legendary team Bill Gaines & Al Feldstein come the classic horror tales written by Feldstein and illustrated by the all-star line-up of Wally Wood, Jack Kamen, Johnny Craig, Feldstein himself, Joe Orlando, Graham Ingels, Jack Davis, and Marie Severin. Reprints 24 stories from Tales from the Crypt with a foreword by Joe Dante, director of Gremlins. Reprints issues #7-12 (24 stories) of the comic book Tales From the Crypt, originally published in 1951 and 1952, and the inspiration for the hit movie and HBO series!…more

This was a fun read, though maybe not as fun as the first volume. The stories start out strong, but lose their kick over the course of the volume. It’s like having that third jelly doughnut: still good but definitely crossing the line into over-indulgence.

Of course, I didn’t go into this expecting great horror stories. I went in looking for old-school vibes and classic riffs from the dawn of horror comics. Volume Two delivers on that count. The plots are “Tales from the Crypt Standard Issue”: i

This was a fun read, though maybe not as fun as the first volume. The stories start out strong, but lose their kick over the course of the volume. It’s like having that third jelly doughnut: still good but definitely crossing the line into over-indulgence.

Of course, I didn’t go into this expecting great horror stories. I went in looking for old-school vibes and classic riffs from the dawn of horror comics. Volume Two delivers on that count. The plots are “Tales from the Crypt Standard Issue”: innocent person killed by bad guy; supernatural force extracts justice and destroys bad guy. Every story is exactly that.

A few things really irked me. One thing was the incessant use of exclamation points. That may have been a problem in the first volume, but I never noticed. In this one, it felt rampant. The other thing was the constant end-of-story sales pitch to send away for real photographs of the “ghoulunatics”. Since this came up nearly every story, it would’ve been a nice touch to include those photos in this volume. After all, I believe I paid more than 75 cents for this book. That should cover the cost of the photos.

I’m giving this four stars because despite everything I just said, this book was exactly what I wanted. You have to love old school horror comics, otherwise you will be disappointed. If you love them as I do, you won’t go wrong with this volume in your collection.

I really love going back in time and reading the EC comics. Not only do I get to see some of the greats of comic art and writing as they get their start, I also get some damn fine stories from the 1950s. These comics resisted the Comic Code Authority’s attempt to censure comics. Very nice art and plots make these a joy to read. Recommended

This volume, though it had some weak stories, was overall very good. It felt like some of the writers were really hitting their stride, while some were beating one concept to death (how many witch doctors hath Haiti?). Overall, there were far more good stories than bad, and the artwork is always top notch.